---
title: “Pray, what are you laughing at?” inquired the Rocket; “I am not lau… — The Happy Prince, and Other Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: “Pray, what are you laughing at?” inquired the Rocket; “I am not laughing.” Who acts: you, Rocket. A sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/6/40/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Happy Prince, and Other Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/) / [Opening, part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/6/) / 40

# The Happy Prince, and Other Tales, Opening, part 6, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
“Pray, what are you laughing at?” inquired the Rocket; “I am not laughing.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** you, Rocket · **What happens:** laugh, inquire, not laugh · **To what, where:** Pray · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Opening, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, Rocket), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg902:6:40
# text = “Pray, what are you laughing at?” inquired the Rocket; “I am not laughing.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Pray	Pray	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
4	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	7	obj	_	_
5	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
6	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
8	at	at	ADP	IN	_	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
11	inquired	inquire	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	Rocket	rocket	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **laugh** *in a quote* | present · progressive | you | Pray |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme |
| 2 | **inquire** *speech: other* | past | the Rocket |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **laugh** *in a quote* | present · progressive | the Rocket *= rocket* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Happy Prince, and Other Tales» by Oscar Wilde, Project Gutenberg book 902 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/6/39/)
- next →: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/6/41/)
- ↑ back to [Opening, part 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg902/6/)